IT Career

I graduated with a bachelors in Network Management about 3 years ago and i
plan on taking net+ certification pretty soon. I am going back to school to
get a bachelors in Electrical Engineering Technologies. Somebody at the gy
m told me it would a good thing to get to advance my career. what do you th
ink? An associate at work suggested that i should also get certified in a f
lavor of windows? Or do you think i should get Server plus?
Your advise is greatly appreicated. trying to get out of working in invento
ry.

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I think going back to school would be a waste of your time. A degree only gets you in the door for an interview or will help you to advance later to management. Two degrees are not going to help. Certification in anything is a good idea. You would be more valuable in something other than Windows because of the about of Windows admins that are already out there. What will really get you the job is experience and an understanding of how to do the real work. Also the ability to learn new technologies is always key. We are always learning in this industry. I personally started out as a help desk/operator right out of high school. I worked my way up by experience and drive from there. I had no certifications until recently and never attained a degree. I am now an operations manager with over 10 years of technical experience. Just know that if you have the drive and smarts it can be done.

My advice to you is to really take an inventory of your skill set and
make an informed decision about your career goals i.e. what would you
like to become based on what you enjoy doing rather than what it is that
pays the most. Yes, earning money is great but that is not always the
most important. Many people change jobs because they get frustrated with
what they thought was their ideal job so please think about that.
Education is always an investment so obtaining another degree is a good
thing but you need to look at the trend of the market so that whatever
degree you receive makes you marketable. Lastly, you need to start with
your current company to see if your skills can be used in the network
area. If you are not getting positive responses from people in the
technical area, it means that you are lacking some skill set so start
with what you know now and make some decisions about where you want to
go and formulate a plan about how to get there.

I agree it is easier with the right credentials. I just think more than one bachelor's degree is not necessary. I am certainly the exception and have my own road blocks because of the lack of degree.
I think you are already on your way to the right credentials, you just need a little experience and a couple of certifications.

Hi Daniel,
I have a bachelors in Electrical Engineering and an
MBA from UCLA, I hold the following certification
paid for by former employers along the way SCSA, SCP,
CCNA. I now manage/direct 2 production teams in our
Infrastucture including several managers.
Education along with practical work experience, and a
cert or two will lead to great things........btw i
earned over $200,000.00 per year with the DoD.
Pierre

I am quite agree with following suggestion, two bachelor degrees of
different disciplines, does not make sense. You just need proper
certification to polish your skills and gain the attention of employers.

You do not need Degree's or certification you just needs brains. You are either good with computers or you are not. Most of the paper certifications know nothing. They do not even know now to look things up on google.You see it in ITtoolbox everyday. LOL

May be you are right in some extent but you can't refuse the importance
of Degree or Certification in the Career. Without proper qualification
you even can't receive a call letter from well reputed organizations.
With out degree, just expertise or experience can support upto limited
level. Specially in such critical situation when you have to face a high
competition you can't survive with out necessary qualification.

The last company that I worked at, a small wireless cell phone company the SA had no qualifications and over ten years in IT. He can get a job anywhere because he has the experience and the references. Many employer will not hire paper certifications as they know they have no practical experience. That is why you take any job in IT and work your way up. Why should you have to shell out hard earned money on some expensive computer school that you get stuck with a big student loan to pay off? If the employers want this and that let them pay for it. Not yourself. If employers do not want to invest in their employee's they are not worth working for.If you have solid practical experience the employer is going to hire you every time not the over qualified paper Cert's, that are a dim a dozen.

There is tons of junk in the market: troubleshooting skills can't be had
from certifications. Sure, if you have money and time, do it. But thinking
that certification is the only way to get the job is false. In some fields,
certifications get you interviews: for instance, ccna.

well, imho, the number of years one worked does not matter much, i have seen
many command line guys, who does not know the architecture of the
systems/software they are managing. Yes, some of my collegues claimed to
have 6 years experience; for simple issues, they call support. They really
piss me off. Certificates and number of years of experience are
irrelevant--in a way.

What are we talking about here......money, title,
position??? it all really depends on what you call
success.......and what your goals are.....experience
to me means marketable skillsets....the kind that get
you $200k yearly salary, and a nice office, and good
employees to manage.
Pierre

I am not refusing the importance of Experience. But now a days for a
single post there are thousands applicants having not only experience
but also qualification. Then why employers will prefer only experience.

Especially in well organized firms where Human Resource departments have
holds they have categorized all posts according to qualification. In the
firms where I am working it is an industrial group which has 50+ IT
experts they don't' even call for interview if someone has not bachelor
or master degree concern less how much experience some one has.

Anyway, I have made a general comment: I am not against certs; nor am I
against hiring freshers; nor I am against inflating resumes. But I don't
like is that many people, despite having 10 years of experience, do not try
to learn troubleshoot problems in systematic fashion.

Those who think they can jump into the IT field and immediately earn big
money are fooling themselves. And you know what? Its all of our faults. The
IT field in general has made such an emphasis on certs that they have
completely lost site of the real goal - an in depth knowledge of IT, not the
ability to take TESTS!

Get the experience first and then worry about certs. Knowing what, why and
how you are doing someting is more worthwhile than knowing how to answer a
test question. Real world experience is the only way to advance in IT.

It's extremely easy to get in over your head in IT if you think you have se
en all possible issues on a cert test. However, if something happens and y
our only response is that you never saw a test question that addressed that
issue before, then your high paying job will probably be lost.

The only way to make money in the IT business is to produce billable hours. If you don't have any customers who are going to pay your invoice then how do you expect top put food on your table? Who's gonna produce the billable hours?
I'd gladly pay $200K a year for the ITguy/gal that can self produce enough billable hours for me to make a reasonable profit after I've paid him/her for their time and the overhead that employing them has cost me.

I totally agree. Once someone told me that having certs brings credibility
to the department. I disagree. The customer does not give a you-know-what
about what certs you have. What they care about is can you fix my problem
, do you treat them with respect and not look down on them, do you respond
in a timely manner, and do you do the things that you say you are going to
do? If you can do all of those then they really do not care if you have ce
rts or not. Especially with all of those test taking notes out there, most
(not all) of the basic certs to get you in the door are pretty much give-m
es anyway since all you have to do is remember the answers. If you have ne
ver worked on the equipment or programs, the certs will not help you much w
ith diagnosing the problems.

If you are looking to continue on in the Networking industry and grow into a management and beyond I would suggest that you start with getting you Server cert. You get the hands on almost every where you go with the window environment but the server experience is something that Hiring manager often put as a cert. requirement.
For example, before you make your final decision go online and take a look at some job postings and see what they say about the cert. that they are looking in your field, unless they are looking for a Unix or Linux background, the environments is not emphasized as much as the server experience.
Good luck

i plan to do write my solaris exam next month . my family is very poor .. i want ot know , this solaris line is good to my carrier ... because i am having CCNA certification but i can't get into networking field ... every one asking experience , now i am going on solaris .. after finished certification , if i didn't get job in solaris field then i will get fedup with this industry .. so pl give me a good suggestion again ... what kind of knowledge i should have .. and how should i move in this IT field . which is good ? pl

hello sir , i am very happy to see ur reply .. thanks for spending ur valuable time for me .. pl give me a good idea .. i know with out experience no one will give job .. right now i am working in desktop job and i am doing solaris .. how can i move to server line ..

It is just experience and your luck counts other wise courses will land
you on confusion. In way back 2001 I did Sun solaris 7 course and
cleared both level of certification within 2-3 months, then also I could
not fetch any relevant job. After few months of struggling to get job I
did course on CCNA and cleared the certification too just to enhance my
skill but yet not to avail. At last Ihad to continue with my old windows
knowledge and got again into it and still working on it. If I get any
interview call related to solaris they ask experience and things like
very well versed in Storage technologies, clustering related to solaris
which I do not have.
So it is the Luck not your certificate. If you click one time as a
fresher then the world is in your palm (if you are hard working).
Nevertheless I have not given up hope to get into solaris admin and
still in touch with solaris and its current development.

I think your statement is true for people looking to get into the
business, but not those who already have experience. I'm on the market
now and over 95% of the job qualifications I've seen list Certifications
as "a plus but not essential." The degree desired is nearly always
followed by "or equivalent experience." Most hiring managers have seen
that Certificates and Degrees are no guarantee that the applicant can
perform the job. Most hiring managers I've spoken with don't hold a lot
of stock in many certifications.

The problem with certifications is picking the right one for your career
and getting a good ROI. The best way to go is an IT degree, IMHO. Then
the certifications are secondary or even lower on the list of priority.
There are exceptions to this of course depending on your career focus
and the certificate in question. Examples would include Cisco certs
which focus on a working knowledge of the concepts and tools of routing.
If you pick a good cert/degree, then you'll get a good ROI.

Nothing will ever replace experience as the biggest plus on your resume
however. When I hired IT staff, I used the order of priority listed
below. Keep in mind that the higher on the list an applicant is, they
will be more rare and more expensive to hire. In other words, you can be
over qualified for a job.

I added a section to my resume recently called "Recent Notable Projects" outlining the home runs and their benefit to the company in terms of dollars. I was told this was the deciding factor for my selection among several qualified applicants.

Hello,
What you have displayed & stated is VERY true, & I do
agree with you. So, how does a person labeled 4, 3, &
2 keep themselves from getting put on the "shelf". Or
how does a 4 or 3 wanting to stay in market demand
keep themselves from being over priced. Operating
Systems (Linux, Windows or Unix) have been developed
over the years by ALOT of people (more than 300), &
people who hire the professional(s) to do a job
expects the professional(s) to know the basics of 300
people. If a 4 becomes a 3 or a 2, should he or she
not expect an increase in demand & financial
compensation. If a person has 10+ years of experience,
then gets a level 2 or 3 certification, should they
not expect a reasonable increase in their "command or
demand"??? With companies asking for plus years of
experience, 2 to 3 qualifications & 2 to 3
certifications, how does a professional keep
themselves from being over priced??? When do regional
& national salary requirements come into effect???

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